Velo Cult: Biker Bar

I
dunno, man, it’s hard to explain. If you ride, you get it. But if
you’ve never shown up to work late and dripping, your teeth tingly from
some potholed street, you won’t understand. For us 5.8
percenters—Portland’s bike commuters—a place like Velo Cult(1969 NE 42nd Ave.,922-2012, velocult.com)
makes sense. It’s a cavernous bicycle shop with beer on tap, a stage
and a makeshift museum. Sitting at the bar fashioned from scrappy wood,
admiring the collection of old mountain bikes and drinking a can of
Anderson Valley—shit, it’s cool. If you ride, you get why the owners
moved this shop up from San Diego. The plan to serve pour-over coffee
and tamales makes sense, too. And you’re stoked they held a screening of
Smokey and the Bandit director Hal Needham’s 1986 cult classic Rad, about a kid who skips the SAT for a BMX race. If not, this ain’t your scene.